Homestead Link Road, Rugby

Award type: Design Award

Award date: 22 November 2023

Location: Rugby, West Midlands

Project type: Transport Infrastructure

Applicant: Homes England

BwN Assessor: TEP Ltd

Homestead Link Road is a key piece of transport and green infrastructure for Homestead View, a new Sustainable Urban Development Extension for South West Rugby. The primary function of the Link Road is to relieve existing congestion in a neighbouring village and reduce air quality issues, thus enabling the delivery of the proposed new community. In providing this function a priority has been placed on delivering a high quality, semi-natural, landscaped setting within which there will be a network of accessible paths for walking, wheeling and cycling, all designed to connect with existing Rights of Way and the National Cycle Network.

The design for the Link Road buffer, and indications of the framework for the wider development, illustrate how the project will create pleasant, scenic and safe routes away from vehicular traffic, providing health and wellbeing benefits, and enabling individuals to make climate-positive choices about travel.

The green infrastructure proposals include extensive new tree planting, including 579 new native trees and 79 orchard trees, together with meadow creation and new scrapes and wetland areas that will, in time, contribute to carbon sequestration. The increased tree canopy cover will also provide shade and cooling for wildlife and people.

The proposals consider and address the risks associated with surface water both on site and in the wider context, future-proofing the design to ensure the project has capacity to sustainably attenuate increases in surface water associated with climate change and protect sites downstream and adjacent to the Link Road. Furthermore, interconnected, above ground SuDS features including roadside grassed surface water channels and attenuation ponds, will intercept and filter road run-off, minimising downstream water pollution.